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AN 



DELIVERED IN CHAUNCEY PLACE CHURCH, 

BEFORE 

THE YOUNG MEN OF BOSTON^ 

AUGUST 2, 1826, 

IN COMMEMORATION 

OF THE 



BY SAMUEX. H.^XXTAFF. 



BOSTON: 

INGRAHAM AND HEWES.... PRINTERS. 
No. 14, State Street. 

18:26, 



TO SAMUEL L. KNAPP, ESQ. 
Dear Sir.. ..In communicating to you the following vote, permit me at 
the same time to assure you, that, in kindly yielding to the application of the 
Committee to assume the task of which you have so acceptably acquitted 
yourself, at a notice so very short as would have probably defeated their 
application in any other quarter, your services have acquired an additional 
value in the consideration of the Committee, and those they have had the 
honor to represent. 

I am. Sir, your obliged friend and humble servant, 

JOHN W. JAMES. 

At a Meeting of the Committee of Arrangements of the Young Men 
of Boston, on the 3d of August, 1826: 

Voted, That the Chairman be instructed to present the thanks of 
the Committee of Arrangements to Samitei. L. Knapp, Esq. for the 
Address delivered by him on the 2d inst. and to request a copy thereof for 
the press. 

ANSWER. 
Dear Sir.. ..It would have been pleasant to me to have had more time to 
devote to the subject of commemorating such characters as those of our late 
Ex-Presidents, Adams and Jefferson; but your call was to me imperious, 
for it appeared one of affectionate confidence, and I did not hesitate a mo- 
ment to obey it. If you think that these sketches of mine will bear to be 
exhibited with the elaborate portraits which will be presented to the world 
by numerous artists in every part of our country, they are at your service. 
I shall leave them as they are, not having leisure, at this time, to finish or 
correct them. 

With affection and respect, your friend and humble servant, 

SAMUEL L. KNAPP. 



Ear ATE OF 

WILLIAM C. RiVES 

APKiL, 1940 



1 






i^i 



It is recorded of an orator of antiquity, 
that when he was about to speak in public, he 
addressed a prayer to the gods, ' that not a word 
might unawares escape him, unsuitable to the 
occasion.' Be that prayer in my liturgy this day. 

YOUNG GENTLEMEN OF BOSTON: 

I come at your request, not with a bas- 
ket of sweet-scented flowers, to deck the bier of 
virgin loveliness fallen with a broken heart 5 nor to 
raise loud lamentations over the youthful warrior, 
sleeping in his shroud ; or to breathe a people's 
feverish despondency at the sudden death of a 
great man, taken from us in the midst of useful- 
ness, while the cares of a nation were upon him. 
But to lead you to meditate at the grave of two 
departed patriarchs, who, having borne the heat 
and burden of the day, and enjoyed in repose the 
cool of the evening of life, quietly sunk to rest, 
full of Hmmortal longings.^ 

To commemorate the illustrious dead, is a 
dictate of nature, and has been the practice in all 
ages, especially amongst an enlightened people; 



4 

who, fearful that the fleeting breath of praise 
would not be sufficient to preserve the names of 
their great men, erected tombs, monuments and 
pyramids, to perpetuate the fame of those who 
had benefitted mankind. The Egyptians sat in 
judgment upon those who died, and decreed the 
sort of burial and sarcophagus the deceased had 
merited. From this people came the most ra- 
tional disposition of departed souls that ever im- 
agination formed, and one which revelation has 
since in part sanctioned. The Athenians not only 
pronounced funeral orations and publicly mourned 
individuals as they deceased, but once a year held 
a solemn festival in honor of the mighty dead. 
The Romans were still more careful to pay fune- 
ral honors where they were deserved. Every 
great man had his orator to speak at his funeral, 
from Junius Brutus to Julius Caesar, and the 
memory of their virtues was preserved by the 
balmy breath of friendship and love. The Holy 
Bible, to which we turn for precepts and exam- 
ples, abounds with eulogies on the dead. The 
Psalmist of Israel pronounced an imperishable 
panegyric upon the untimely fate of Saul and 
Jonathan, in which their virtues only were named 
in the hallowed strain of affection ; other things 
were left to the chronicles of the day. This was 
not the momentary burst of grief, but was intend- 
ed for permanent effect. It was an epic record of 
the virtues of Hhe mighty ivho had fallen^^ Hhe 



measure of which he ordered to be taught to the 
children of Judah.' 

In a repubUc like ours it is peculiarly proper to 
pay funeral honors to those who assisted in giving 
us freedom and fame. Their reputation is identi- 
fied with our national history, and it can never be 
fully understood without an acquaintance with the 
motives, the talents and deeds of our fathers. 

The actors in our revolutionary conflict have 
been falling away, one after another, like the 
leaves of autumn, until the number left were but 
few, and those scattered through the country. 
The list of our provincial congress is nearly a full 
starred catalogue, and of the signers of the Decla- 
ration of Independence, but three only remained 
when the fiftieth year had come, and the jubilee 
was sounded through the land. On that memo- 
rable day, demonstrations of joy were extended 
through a great and happy country — twelve mil- 
lions of people raised their united voices to God, 
in gratitude and thanksgiving for all his manifold 
kindnesses to our nation, and for preserving the 
lives of three venerable patriarchs, who had sur- 
vived to see the prosperity of their country, after 
half a hundred years from the hour of doubt and 
danger in which they were called to act. The 
festivities and the day were ended — the next 
morning's sun arose — the public knell was struck 
— and the cry was, that the Sage of duincy died 
yesterday. Singular occurrence ! Wonderful 



event ! What a happy hour in which to leave 
the world ! — were the ejaculations from every 
tongue. The mathematician was calculating the 
chances of such a death, the superstitious viewed 
it as miraculous, and the judicious saw in the 
event the hand of that Providence, without whose 
notice not a sparrow falls to the ground. While 
this knell was still vibrating on our ears, and 
wonder was still sitting on the countenances of 
all, that death-note was struck again 5 it came 
from city to city on the southern breeze, and told 
a tale of still greater wonder — that at the noon- 
tide of the jubilee, the angel of death had sum- 
moned the great philosopher and philanthropist of 
Monticello to immortality. The hand of God 
was seen by all; and a whole people are now 
falling^upon their knees to acknowledge Him the 
wise ruler of the universe, who in the midst of his 
chastenings, shows his love for the beings he has 
created ; and we are now at the altar, as it were, 
with the ashes of these patriarchs before us, to 
express our gratitude that they lived so long and 
expired as they did. 

At the funeral solemnities we can do but little 
more than show a few of the garments the deceas- 
ed made for a naked land, and pluck, as we fol- 
low the funeral car, a sprig or two of evergreen 
to drop into the fresh made grave; and as the 
earth closes over them, put down a head and a 
foot stone, in order to show the future architect 



where to place the monument, when the materials 
shall be collected for the purpose. It is seldom 
that the mourner at the grave writes the inscrip- 
tion on the marble that covers it. 

Only one of the signers of the Declaration 
of Independence now survives — the venerable 
Charles Carroll, of Maryland, is the last of that 
sacred band. But he is not alone in the world, 
for millions claim kindred to him, and new-horn 
generations wear him in their hearts, and support 
him in their arms ; and if their prayers can avail^ 
he will tarry a little longer, to receive the affec- 
tionate attentions of a grateful people. 

But, however, to show the justice of the praise 
we may bestow, it is necessary to narrate some of 
the events of their lives, but is impossible, in a 
short discourse, at this time, to do but little more 
than go from date to date in their annals, and to 
offer a few remarks as we pass along; leaving it 
to the future historian and biographer to delineate 
their characters with the minuteness the subjects 
demand. 

John Adams was born at Q,uincy, then a part 
of Braintree, October 19th, 1735. He was edu- 
cated at Harvard University, and graduated in 
1755. While at college, he was distinguished for 
all those characteristics which mark the future 
great man. His learned and evangelical friend 
ajid classmate, the Rev. Dr. Hemmenway, often 
spolte of the honesty, openness and decision of 



8 

character which he displayed while an under 
graduate, and illustrated his opinions by nume- 
rous anecdotes. From Cambridge he went to 
Worcester, and for a time instructed in the gram- 
mar school in that town ; and studied the profes- 
sion of the law with Mr. Putnam, a barrister of 
eminence. By him he was introduced to the cel- 
ebrated Jeremy Gridley, then Attorney General 
of the Province of Massachusetts Bay. At the 
first interview they became friends. Gridley at 
once proposed Mr. Adams for admission to the 
bar of Suffolk, and took him into special favor. 
Soon after his admission, Mr. Gridley led his 
young friend into a private chamber, with an air 
of secrecy, and pointing to a book case, said, sir, 
there is the secret of my eminence, and of which 
you may avail yourself if you please. It was a 
pretty good collection of treatises on the civil law, 
with the institutes of Justinian. It was, indeed, 
a field which had not been very widely opened to 
the lawyers of the day. In this place Mr. Adams 
spent his days and nights, until he made himself a 
good master of the code. It may seem strange to 
us of the present time, to find that there was so 
much empiricism in a profession now so far from 
mystery. Yet it was, unquestionably, the case in 
that day. And those acquainted with the urbanity 
of the present judges in our country, can hardly 
imagine how difficult it was for a young lawyer 
to go on against the overbearing and austere man- 



9 

manner of every creature, great or small, then 
called a judge. Mr. Adams first discovered his 
lofty spirit of independence, by breaking in upon 
these encroachments of arbitrary pov^^er. The 
learning and spirit of the young advocate were 
soon taken notice of by the bar and made knovi^n 
to his clients. As early as 1765, he was associa- 
ted with Otis and others in the great cause of 
liberty, in appearing before the governor and 
council to argue with them upon the stamp act, 
and to insist, at all events, Hhat the courts should 
administer justice ivithout stamped paper.' He 
had been about twelve years at the bar when he 
was called upon to act as of counsel for Captain 
Preston and his soldiers, who were to be tried for 
an alleged murder of certain citizens of Boston. 
Mr. Adams was well aware of the popular indig- 
nation against these prisoners, and he was at this 
time a representative of Boston in the general 
court, which office depends entirely upon popular 
favor; but he knew what was due to his profes- 
sion and to himself, and hazarded the consequen- 
ces. The trial was well managed. The captain 
severed in his trial from the soldiers, who were 
tried first, and their defence rested, in part, upon 
the orders, real or supposed, given by the officer 
to his men to fire. This was, in a good measure, 
successful. On the trial of Captain Preston, no 
such order to fire could be proved. The result 
was as it should have been, an acquittal. It was 
2 



10 

a glorious thing that the counsel and jury had 
nerve sufficient to breast the torrent of public 
feeling. It showed Britain that she had not a 
mere mob to deal with, but resolute and deter- 
mined men, who could restr^n themselves. ^Such 
men are dangerous to arbitrary poiver.^ At this 
time, Gridley was dead, and the intellectual lamp 
of Otis was flickering and decreasing, if^ indeed, 
the ray of reason was partially left; and Mr. Ad- 
ams had but few to contend with him in the race. 
Sewall and Leonard were leaning to the side of 
power, and were supporting the ministry in the 
papers of the day. Mr. Adams appeared under 
a feigned name, as was the usual mode of discus- 
sing subjects at that time, and met the crown 
writers with great vigor and success. He soon 
saw that the question must be settled by arms, 
and calmly made up his mind for the event, even 
to martyrdom. He knew the spirit of New Eng*- 
land and her resources 5 and he insisted that the 
former could never be destroyed, however long 
the struggle might last. Not a single word ever 
escaped him that looked like doubt or despair. 
When the question of independence was agitated 
in the continental congress, he was fully prepared 
— his soul was lighted up by its fires, and his 
mouth was filled with the arguments it inspired. 
So full and so forcible was his reasoning on this 
subject, that when he had finished his speech on 
some previous motion, which involved the merits 



11 

of this question, even his friends were astonished 
that he had matured the subject so well. 

In 1780, Mr. Adams was sent to Holland, 
with full powers from congress to negociate for a 
loan, for that body had seen the pernicious effects 
of a paper currency without some of the precious 
metals to redeem it, in part, if not to a full extent. 
Money at all events must be had. The sword- 
arm of the nation would have soon fallen from its 
socket without this sinew of war. it- Holland was 
rich, and, as we hoped, kindly disposed to these 
colonies, for she had once redeemed herself from 
a foreign yoke, and had, of course, a sympathy 
for those making similar exertions ; still she was 
a cautious merchant, and although not without 
patriotic sentiments, made shrewd calculations 
upon the chances of our success in the struggle, 
and of our future ability to refund the loan, if 
successful. The minister saw at a glance the dis- 
position of the authorities, and the course to be 
pursued, and set about it without delay. It was 
to make them acquainted with us ; to develope 
our resources and capacities, if we were success- 
ful 5 to explain the extent of our country y the 
nature of the soil and its productions ; the hardi- 
hood, enterprise and industry of the people; their 
frugal habits, their simplicity and purity of man- 
ners, and the rapid increase of population. All 
these were to be made clear before the vaults of 
the bank could be opened. That we had no 



12 

money at that time, was nothing to them, for their 
mercantile and financial sagacity had established 
some new axioms in political economy. Nations 
had been considered rich in proportion to the 
sums in the treasury ; they thought a nation 
wealthy when the people had industrious habits 
and ready means of business, and could pursue it 
without shackles. Mr. Adams spared no pains 
to give them correct information. The Dutch 
were convincisl, and the loan effected. A cour- 
tier with flexible principles and polished manners, 
with sufficient means for display, and for less 
honest purposes, may gain fame as a negociator, 
at an easy price 5 but to leave a country almost 
unknown to the great mass of Europeans, and in 
a state of revolutionary war, and under these cir- 
cumstances to ask for money — the worst of all 
matters of negociation — and to obtain it by intel- 
ligence, and energy of character, has no parallel 
in the history of diplomacy. 

Mr. Adams was one of the commissioners M^ho 
signed the treaty of peace in 1783. His share in 
that great business will hereafter be more fully 
known, but it is not improper to say at this time, 
that to him we are indebted for the preservation 
of the fisheries. 

As our first minister to England, he conduct- 
ed with so much judgment, dignity, and courtesy, 
as to exalt himself and his country, and to concil- 
iate the feelings and to gain the respect and confi- 
dence of the one he was nigh. 



13 

As Vice President of the United States he 
presided over the senate with impartiahty, readi- 
ness, dignity and intelHgence ; never yielding his 
rights to obstreperous contumely, for party pur- 
poses, or ever infringing the rights of others, by 
petulent assumptions of prerogative. 

Of him as President w^e shall say nothing, for 
fear of bringing up, in the minds of some, an allu- 
sion to politics, which are banished from these 
consecrated walls on this day ; but it can give no 
pain to any one to hear it said, that in his admin- 
istration, Truxton, Preble, Shaw, and others^^ 
ushered in the dawn of our naval fame. 

Thomas Jefferson was born in Virginia, on 
the second day of April, 1743. He was educated 
at William and Mary College, and on leaving this 
seminary he went into the office of Chancellor 
VV^ythe, a gentleman of great celebrity in his day. 
Mr. Jefferson commenced practice quite young, 
and soon acquired distinction in his profession. 
In 1769 he was found in the legislature of Vir- 
ginia, as an active member. He took an enlarged 
view of the principles of a free government, and 
expressed them with great boldness. In 1774 he 
wrote and published his 'summary view of the 
rights of British America,' which gave him no 
small share of fame, which was still greatly in- 
creased by his reply, prepared as one of the com- 
mittee of the assembly, to the propositions of the 
British Minister to the Governor of Virginia. In 



14 

1775 he took his seat as a member of the general 
congress, at Philadelphia. Virginia had then felt 
but little of the encroachment of arbitrary power, 
but Mr. Jefferson saw that yielding principles 
would invite aggressions. In this august body he 
soon became conspicuous. The fame he had ac- 
quired in Ms native state followed him to Phila- 
delphia, and his exertions there were well calcula- 
ted to secure and enhance it. It was his good 
fortune while in this body to draft the Declaration 
of Independence. The subject had been privately 
discussed and settled, and the remaining question 
then was, on the form in which it should come be- 
fore the world in justification of the procedure. 

In 1779 Mr. Jefferson was made Governor of 
Virginia ; and during his administration, that Hrai- 
tor-fiend,' Benedict Arnold, made an incursion 
into Virginia, with a formidable force, and the 
Governor had no troops to oppose him. Some of 
the Hotspurs of the day thought he might have 
done something to have checked the progress of 
the enemy, but time has settled the question in 
favor of the course Mr. Jefferson pursued, as wise 
and correct. In 1781, when we had hardly seen 
an American book upon statisticks, Mr. Jefferson 
wrote his Notes on Virginia, to answer and refute 
the assertion, Hhat man was belittled in Ameri- 
ca^^ as had been stated by some prejudiced travel- 
lers from Europe. In 1782 he was appointed to 
join our envoys in France, but before he could 



15 

get ready to sail, a treaty of peace had been sign- 
ed ; and on hearing of this news, he considered 
his voyage unnecessary. In 1784 he was a com- 
missioner with Dr. Frankhn and Mr. Adams, to 
attend to our national affairs in Europe, with full 
powers to make treaties with such nations as 
should be thought advisable. A treaty was at 
this time made with Prussia. When Dr. Frank- 
lin returned to America, Mr. Jefferson was ap- 
pointed his successor in France. The political 
feuds in that country, at that time, prevented any 
further negociations with the government, and 
gave the American Minister an opportunity to 
enjoy the society of the learned men who then 
figured at Paris. In 1789 he returned to his 
native country, and instantly on his arrival was 
appointed Secretary of State under President 
Washington, which office he resigned in 1794. 
In 1797 he was elected Vice President of the 
United States, and in 1801, President, in which 
office he continued eight years, and then retired 
to private life. He lived in a period, as his co- 
temporary did, of difficulty and trial, with friends 
and enemies, calmly pursuing his own course. 
When his advocates and his opposers are gone, 
the future historian will discuss the merits of his 
administration. Since his retirement from the 
duties of office, he has been constantly engaged 
in some plan for the good of mankind. Being one 
of the early converts to the efficacy of vaccination, 



\ 16 

as a preventative of that avrful scourge of man- 
kind, the small pox, he not only labored to ex- 
tend the blessing throughout the Commonvrealth 
of Virginia, and also to the aborigines of our west- 
ern wilds, to whom this pestilence was even more 
dreadful than to civilized society. The medical 
skillof the natives of the forests did not reach 
even an assuagent of this malady. They opposed 
flight or moral courage to the dread of an attack 
of this disease. Whole tribes were swept away 
at once. This philanthropist exerted himself to 
bring the Indians to a belief in this preventative ; 
and coming from so great and kind a father as 
Mr. Jefferson, they thought that it must have been 
sent him from the Great Spirit, and they yielded 
to the process of inoculation without opposition. 

The first continental congress, of which Mr. 
Adams and Mr. Jefferson were members, was an 
assemblage of truly great men. In times of dan- 
ger, all eyes rest on the most able and worthy. It 
is only in times of party and animosity, that we 
trust our dearest interests with those, who, for- 
getting their own dignity, will act only on narrow 
principles, for selfish purposes. It was a band of 
men who wore no concealed dagger for their en- 
emies, but which spoke a thousand, in their calm, 
cautious, and manly proceedings. The fate of 
unborn millions was in their charge. With them 
every talent found its appropriate use. Danger 
and responsibility seemed to purge their mental 



17 

vision with euphrasy, to ken the peculiar traits of 
character each possessed. The martial air, the 
spotless integrity, and the well tried ability and 
courage of Washington, pointed him out for a 
leader of the armies to be raised in support of the 
measures which had been, or were about to be 
adopted. They wisely acted in conclave on all 
important questions, that the world at large, nor 
even their own friends around them, should wit- 
ness any disagreement among the members of that 
body. Franklin, that great reader of the charac- 
ters of men, and of the disposition of nations, was 
early sent abroad to conciliate, to examine, to re- 
port, and to act, when it should be thought wise 
and expedient so to do. Laurens and Lee were 
sometimes with him, before Adams was sent to 
join him — men of fashion and honor, and who re- 
presented an important portion of our country. 
To show the wisdom of that body, from those 
who first assembled at Philadelphia to those who 
acted at the close of the war, we need only ex- 
amine their journals, manifestos, and other state 
papers. They contain no boastings, no furious 
denunciations of those stung to madness, whose 
fury increases their weakness 5 no overwhelming 
joy at success ; but those calm remonstrances, 
those dignified upbraidings, those cautious ex- 
pressions of self respect, which carried with them 
the soul of high resolve and unyielding purpose. 
The gaze of the world was upon them. The 
3 



18 

friends of freedom were wishing them succests, 
and the advocates for powers, dominions, and 
thrones, loading them with imprecations, and de- 
nouncing them as rebels. Such, amidst all these 
things, was the firmness of their step, and the 
rapidity of their march, that their friends increas- 
ed and their enemies were diminished. The great 
nations of Europe were directly engaged in the 
struggle, and hope grew fresher every hour, as 
the conflict proceeded. The little fluctuations 
of hope and fear, at home, were carefully con- 
cealed from those at a distance. At length suc- 
cess crowned their labors, and peace came with 
some of its blessings and many of its dangers. It 
required as much talent, or more, to form a gov- 
ernment suited to our wants, capacities and inter- 
ests ; one which would contain principles suffi- 
ciently expansive for present purposes and for our 
future growth, as it did to resist oppression, and 
to direct the means to the ends in obtaining free- 
dom. All was achieved, and the leading men in 
every part of our country who exerted themselves 
in this second Herculean labor, ought to be re- 
membered as well as those who performed the 
first. In truth, they were nearly all the same 
persons, a few only had grown up to assist them. 

It is common in the history of man, to find 
those who for years had been rivals for power 
and fame when living, become co-heirs of glory 
when dead. Ancient and modern times are full 



19 

of such instances. The two great rival states- 
men, Cimon and Pericles, who alternately swayed 
the volatile opinions of the Athenians, and wielded 
the thunder of that important republic, found the 
same honest historian, who freely discussed their 
several merits, and left it on record , and the 
great warriors of Rome, Caesar and Pompey, have 
been united, and compared in all ages succeeding 
that in which they lived. In more modern times, 
Holland and Chatham have come down to us to- 
gether, and their sons, Fox and Pitt, who for 
more than twenty years were the theme of admi- 
ration of one party or the other in England, are 
now placed side by side in their graves, and their 
eloquence, and their deeds, are written on the 
same page of history ; so it has been, so it will 
be. If ordinary men chance to die in high places, 
the eulogist is constrained to cull from the barren 
heath of their lives, here and there a flower to 
make up a garland for their hearse, but when 
truly great men leave the world, we may speak of 
them before their ashes are cold, as if they had 
been dead a century. The men whose decease 
we have met to commemorate, were great men. 
Adams was a man of robust intellect and of mar- 
tial feelings ; he had in his elements much of the 
old New England hardihood, and that quickness 
which they had to feel an insult. Jefferson was 
shrewd, quick, philosophical and excursive in his 
views, and kept at all times such a command over 



20 

his temper, that no one could discover the work- 
ings of his soul. The deep discerner of charac" 
ter of ancient days, if he had studied these men, 
would probably have said, the former belonged to 
the school of Socrates, and the latter to that of 
Seneca. Their minds were not only different in 
their elementary properties, but education had 
made the difference still wider. Adams was born 
and educated on the seaboard, and practised law 
in a seaport 'whose merchants ivere princes, and 
whose traffickers were among the honorable of 
the earth? He entered deeply into the views of 
this class of men ; and commerce, and its protec- 
tor, a navy, were the desire of his heart from the 
first dawn of the revolution. Jefferson was a 
planter, the son of a planter, and his first impres- 
sions were of extended lands and literary and phi- 
losophical ease. Agricultural pursuits had more 
charms for him than commerce. The productions 
of their pens also mark the difference in their 
mode of thinking and reasoning. Adams grasped 
at facts drawn from practical life, and instantly 
reasoned upon them. Jefferson saw man and his 
nature through generalities, and formed his opin- 
ions by philosophical inductions of a more theo- 
retical cast. In the writings of Adams, you some- 
times find the abruptness and singularity of the 
language of prophecy ; in those of Jefferson, the 
sweet wanderings of the descriptive and the love- 
ly creations of the inventive muse. When these 



21 

great men first met, the subject was so important 
they were called to consider, that not only they 
but most of their compeers seemed made with 
similar feelings and dispositions. There was such 
a necessity of concert and harmony, that the lights 
and shades of character could not be minutely 
displayed. When the great labor was finished, 
there was more leisure to compare opinions on 
subjects which were minor in their nature and 
effect. 

In a few years after our constitution was es- 
tablished, but when the machine was hardly in 
operation, in all its parts, an event happened 
which divided the opinions of the wise, and shook 
many of the settled axioms in politics. This was 
the French revolution. Adams, reasoning from 
the nature of man as he had practically found 
him, had fears from the first, that freedom would 
gain but little by the throes and struggles for 
liberty in France. The note of joy for deliver- 
ance, to his ear, contained the fearful tone of de- 
lirium. His letter to Dr. Price, an enthusiastic 
believer in the success of the lovers of freedom, 
contains a view of the subject that seems border- 
ing upon that prescient wisdom which belongs to 
superior beings. He had seen France, when 
she 'before the cross believed and slept^^ and had 
watched her encyclopedists and illuminees^ and 
beheld them silently laying their trains and ma- 
turing their plans for the awful explosion. He 



22 

feared that in breaking their chains, the limbs 
they bound would be lacerated and destroyed. 
Jefferson lived with these men of letters, and saw 
them through the lovely medium of literature and 
the sciences, and discovered so many of them to 
be honest and amiable, and wishing for no more 
than every good man could ask, and defending 
their theories with all the beauties of rhetoric and 
the charms of eloquence, he believed with these 
disciples of liberty, that after a few spasms of 
frenzy, France would enjoy the blessings of an 
ameliorajted government. In this opinion he was 
supported by many politicians of great experience 
in every civilized country, and it was too delight- 
ful a vision for a philanthropist suddenly to give 
up. Every thing done in France had a bearing 
upon the United States. The coal was taken 
from our altar by which the fire was kindled 
there, and we were proud to think that it first 
descended from heaven to us. Gratitude to the 
French nation for assisting us in our struggle, 
united to an inborn love of freedom, blinded the 
eyes and influenced the judgments of many honest 
and fair minded men. Every politician cast his 
horoscope and made his own astrological calcula- 
tions at the birth of the French revolution, and 
this country was bewildered in the disagreement of 
the results. 

I rejoice for my country that these great minds 
assimilated in so many things, and differed in so 



23 

many others. There was much to be done for 
the growth of the country in every department of 
a great republic. No mind could embrace all 
branches of duty. No one individual could think 
of every thing necessary to be done. • While Frank- 
lin was stealing the lightning from the clouds, 
Washington was taking lessons from British gen- 
erals. If Fulton and Perkins had been village 
politicians, it would have been, in all probability, 
a long time before we should have seen a stereo- 
type check-plate, or witnessed the rapid move- 
ments of a steam-boat. If Adams had been a 
midland agriculturalist, our navy, of which he is 
now justly styled the father, might to this day 
have consisted of a few small vessels, fit only for 
coasting about our waters, and perhaps with the 
addition of a few feeble floating batteries for sea- 
coast defence. Or if Jefferson had been a great 
military commander, fond of the pomp, pride, and 
circumstance of war, Louisiana might not have 
been ours to this day. It is true, that we might 
have possessed it by conquest, after a waste of 
lives and treasure 5 but such possessions are always 
uncertain. The territory won by war, is always 
ready to change masters, and never loses its thirst 
for blood, and a disposition to convulsions ; but 
when obtained by fair purchase and common con- 
sent, its land marks are permanent, its disposition 
quiet, and the title deeds are recorded in the an- 
nals of history, and con^dered legal by all nations. 



24 

In many opinions and acts these great men re- 
sembled each other; both labored incessantly in 
their native States 5 each assisted in framing the 
Constitution of the Commonwealth in which he 
resided. There is hardly an institution in Massa- 
chusetts, for the improvement of the arts, sciences 
and letters, to which Mr. Adams did not largely 
contribute — and Jefferson's name is a synonyme 
of the University of Virginia ; and to him are we 
indebted for the charter of the Phi Beta Kappa 
Society, which he brought from Germany, an Al- 
pha of which is extended to six colleges in the 
United States. It is an admirable incentive to 
literary ambition. Both were free from that dis- 
ease so incident to old age — that malady, which 
checks the best impulses of the heart, and in time 
impairs the mind by deadening the moral sense — 
avarice. Jefferson, after all his opportunities to 
amass wealth, died poor, and Adams was not 
rich. They labored for others, and forgot them- 
selves, in that prosperous period in our history, 
when it almost literally rained gold. In another 
instance they were alike — in youth they had the 
gravity of years, and in old age the freshness of 
youth. The elixir they drank to give an imper- 
ishable bloom to their minds, was the rich and 
varied literature of the day ; they kept pace with 
the rapid current of knowledge as it flowed along, 
and seized every new publication with the eager- 
ness of a fresh appetite. Their lives prove to us 



25 -■■■ 

that the method of embalming the mental faculties 
is not lost; it is to keep them in the perpetual 
sunshine of vigorous intellects, and braced up by 
the outpourings of kindred spirits. The extensive 
correspondence their numerous acquaintances and 
their rank in society necessarily brought upon 
them, and of which, at times, they complained as 
onerous, probably did much to keep up a healthy 
mental action. They were obliged to think on 
such a variety of subjects, and condense their 
thoughts in giving pertinent answers to a thousand 
questions, that their faculties could not slumber. 
They were often teased by repeated intrusion, but 
no querulous expression ever escaped them. No- 
thing of that drivelling about the virtues and in- 
telligence of a former age, and its superiority over 
the present, ever came from their pens. Every 
day, visiters from all parts of the world thronged 
to their hospitable mansions, and were honored 
with a cordial reception. The politicians of every 
party were seen in their saloons, and men of eyepy 
religious creed came to them for counsel and as- 
sistance in building up their establishments. No 
two men in this, or any other country, have done 
so much for religious freedom as Adams and Jef- 
ferson — and, without this, all liberty is a mock- 
ery. Thus blessing and being blessed, these 
patriarchs marched on to the confines of time, and 
united in eternity. Their reputations are now the 
common property of the nation, and the care of 
4 



26 

preserving them for future generations is now 
committed to this — to the young, in a particular 
manner; for they have come forward since the 
bitterness of party distinctions has been lost. 
Alive to every thing which is connected with the 
honor and prosperity of their country, they feel 
none of the irritations which existed with their 
fathers. The feuds of former days are matters of 
history, not of remembrance to them. It is affec- 
tionate, pious and patriotic, to cherish the memo- 
ries of those who left us this goodly heritage — this 
land of liberty, of knowledge, of free institutions, 
and of glorious prospects — this land where no ex- 
clusive orders exist, except those created by vir- 
tue, wisdom and genius. To the dead of our 
country we are not only indebted for our places 
and our social and moral habits, but for the foun- 
tains of thought and lessons of wisdom which they 
have transmitted to us. While their precepts are 
before us, their example should not be forgotten. 
Their characters should be traced on the walls of 
the house of God, and written on monuments of 
stone. 

How full of interest is the thought, that many, 
very many, of you who are present this day, will 
live in health and vigor until the next jubilee shall 
come, and a century shall have been completed 
since the birth day of our nation ; and not a few 
of those now in active life, and well acquainted 
with the history of the past fifty years, not from 



21 

books alone, but from living chronicles, may also 
see that day. The youth of this age have caught 
the spirit of their fathers, and w^ill carry a double 
portion of it to transmit to the next. The first 
builders of this grand political fabric are gone, or 
gathering themselves in their beds to die ; those 
who now support the great work of freedom will 
soon follow them ; and you, young men, must be 
prepared to take the burden upon yourselves. 
But be not impatient for the task; rather be 
anxious to qualify yourselves for it when it comes. 
When in the course of nature and providence 
you must take the places of your fathers, bring to 
your high destinies lessons of wisdom drawn from 
those gone before you. Your advantages are of 
a much higher grade than those your ancestors 
enjoyed. They found the way through the forest 
by the blazed trees and the faint trails of those 
who had pioneered the way, and sometimes were 
obliged to go on when there was no track of civil- 
ization to be seen. Public high-ways are now- 
prepared for you to travel, and mile-stones are 
placed all along the road, to guide and cheer you 
on the journey. In the morning of life, all is 
pleasant and peaceful; but as you advance, you 
will find that it is the fate of man, to act^ to suf- 
fer^ and to mourn '^ but knowledge, virtue, philo- 
sophy and religion, will teach you how to sustain 
yourselves in every part you have to perform in 



28 

life. Be true to yourselves, and your country will 
be safe. 

The youths of Rome, once a year, left the 
sacred groves of Egeria, to visit the tomb of 
Numa, the founder of the religious rites, the civil 
institutions, and literary taste of the country. On 
that hallowed ground, they caught the inspiration 
of virtue and the love of learning, and returned 
with a fonder relish for the fountains of know- 
ledge and a quickened devotion to the god of wis- 
dom. Go, ye young men of my country, oftener 
than once a year, to visit the tombs of your fa- 
thers. No man ever was great who did not live 
much among the dead. To gather true lessons of 
experience, we must travel back through every 
age of time to the birth of creation, and contem- 
plate the progress of each succeeding generation. 
The youthful soldier braces his nerves and warms 
his soul by thinking on those who fell in the cause 
of liberty, from the battle of Marathon to that 
which closed the last scene of the great drama of 
our revolution. The youthful speaker kindles his 
genius at the perpetual lamps which are burning 
in the tombs of the orators of antiquity 5 and the 
young statesman draws his maxims of wisdom 
and prudence from the codes and commentaries 
of the master spirits of former ages. We are no 
longer the new men of the new world. We have 
a noble inheritance in the fame of our ancestors. 



29 

To value this possession justly, we must imitate 
their virtues, by raising the standard of informa- 
tion and purifying the currents of freedom. Some 
Plutarch, we trust, will soon arise in our country, 
gifted with all the requisites of the biographer, 
who will weave in one bright wreath of glory, the 
great men we have mourned as they rested from 
their labors. 

On the page sparkling with gems of rare 
merit, set by such a hand, shall appear other 
worthies than those we are this day called to 
commemorate. On the ample page, by such a 
hand, the Cato of that age, the elder Adams, shall 
be found shining in the adamantine firmness of his 
stern virtues. There shall be minutely traced the 
effects of a religious character upon the turbulent 
waves of popular commotion, and the tones of lib- 
erty, so appalling to an oppressor's ear, shall be 
preserved in thought to be thundered in the ears 
of tyrants to the end of time. There too, shall be 
seen the quick and intelligent eye of Paine, flash- 
ing with the fires of an indignant spirit, as when 
he put his hand to the Declaration of Indepen- 
dence, and swore, on his country's altar, to die 
in defence, or live to enjoy the blessings of free- 
dom. High up the escutcheon, and boldly on 
the emblazonment, shall polished Hancock stand, 
wearing the triple wreath of honor — for his servi- 
ces as a statesman — for his munificent donations 
to public institutions — and for his constant exer- 



m 

tions as a patron of literature and the arts, united 
to a fostering care of genius and merit of every 
description. There also, the youthful President 
of the Continental Congress, full of heroism, 
adorned with the charms of literature and the 
graces of eloquence — fierce to his enemies as the 
chafed lion, but to those engaged in the same 
cause with him, ^sweet as summer,' shall stand 
forth, radiant in imperishable glory, and be hailed 
in every coming age as the first great martyr of 
liberty. The value of the sacrifice shall not be 
forgotten when the bust shall crumble and the 
column fall, and those gods of the earth who 
trusted to 'pyramidic pride^ for immortality, shall 
be remembered no more. By his side shall stand, 
crowned with unfading laurels, the hero of Bunker 
Hill, who raised the first redoubt of liberty, and 
laid each sod with an invocation to the spirits of 
the brave provincials sleeping in their beds of 
glory on our frontiers.* This little mound was 
watered by the blood of the brave, and from 
it sprung such deathless flowers to bind the war- 
rior's brow, as grow on Grecian plains and Hel- 
vetian hills. 

Not only in prose, but in verse shall they be 



*Colonel Prescott, during the night previous to the battle of Bunker 
Hill, while erecting the redoubt, frequently reminded his officers and men 
of the reputation the provincials had won at Lake George andTiconderoga. 
at which places he had been with several of them, and earnestly entreated 
them not to tarnish that fame so nobly acquired. 



31 

celebrated; for some future Homer shall arise 
and erect in epic glory, and by the magic of 
numbers, another Pantheon of mind, and place in 
his proper niche each worthy of the revolution, 
from aged Nestor to fierce Ajax, and all accom- 
plished Hector. There, by the sublimity, the 
fire, the sweetness, the elegance, and the truth of 
his poetry, shall those who reasoned and those 
who fought find eternal fame in the faithfulness of 
his delineations. From these youths of the schools, 
now with us, may the biographer and the poet 
come — they have caught the spirit of this, and 
will breathe it to another age. 

The light shining on one ancient grave, will 
reach to another, until their commingled radiance 
will form a pillar of fire to guide posterity through 
every night of danger that may come upon our 
nation. If darkness should gather around and 
shrowd us, the brave defenders of their country 
will be enabled by its blaze to whet their swords 
on the tombs of Washington and Green, and the 
statesmen to read their duty in the epitaphs of 
Adams and Jefferson. 



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